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Who's to blame for high fuel prices ?

The Government tell us that according to the draft Commerce Commission report the fuel companies are "fleecing us".
Commerce Commission themselves say nothing of the sort and just that competition could be better, or words to that effect.
This the same Commerce Commission that approved the merger of ZEL and Caltex three years ago.

ZEL say they make a net profit after costs of just a few cents a liter.
My research shows the National Government put up fuel excise a total of 17 cents per liter + GST (19.55 cents) over 9 years in Government, an annual rate of just 2.17 cents per liter of fuel including GST and barely enough to keep the fuel excise in line with inflation, so no net real increase.

On the other hand since coming to Power Labour have announced a total of 25.3 cents per liter inclusive of GST increases for Aucklanders, see https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/...-point-5-cents, (these levies are all plus GST) so poor Aucklanders are struggling with annual increases on average of 25.3 / 3 = 8.43 cents per liter per annum. Labour have increased petrol taxes at four times the annual rate for Aucklanders as National and yet have the gall to tell us the fuel companies are fleecing us !

Who's the real fleecer ? What do you think ?

Should we have an inquiry into the rate of increase in Government taxes over the last decade to see if they're fair and reasonable ?

The Government tell us that according to the draft Commerce Commission report the fuel companies are "fleecing us".
Commerce Commission themselves say nothing of the sort and just that competition could be better, or words to that effect.
This the same Commerce Commission that approved the merger of ZEL and Caltex three years ago.

ZEL say they make a net profit after costs of just a few cents a liter.
My research shows the National Government put up fuel excise a total of 17 cents per liter + GST (19.55 cents) over 9 years in Government, an annual rate of just 2.17 cents per liter of fuel including GST and barely enough to keep the fuel excise in line with inflation, so no net real increase.

On the other hand since coming to Power Labour have announced a total of 25.3 cents per liter inclusive of GST increases for Aucklanders, see https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/...-point-5-cents, (these levies are all plus GST) so poor Aucklanders are struggling with annual increases on average of 25.3 / 3 = 8.43 cents per liter per annum. Labour have increased petrol taxes at four times the annual rate for Aucklanders as National and yet have the gall to tell us the fuel companies are fleecing us !

Who's the real fleecer ? What do you think ?

Should we have an inquiry into the rate of increase in Government taxes over the last decade to see if they're fair and reasonable ?

No point in worrying about the tax on fuel. It has to come from somewhere to keep the roads in reasonable repair,

No point in worrying about the tax on fuel. It has to come from somewhere to keep the roads in reasonable repair,

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...on-the-economy You could potentially make that argument if they were actually spending the money on roads where it belongs but what are they really doing with all those taxes ? Julie Anne-Genter is all her "wisdom" thinks a zero road toll is a realistic target and yet she is happy to can all these safe new roads.
The roads around where I live seem to have noticeably deteriorated lately but ...excerpt The NZTA's accounts also show that it's struggling to spend all the money it collects. While it's managed to collect nearly $1.5 billion in fuel taxes this year, it has struggled to spend anything near what it planned to. Hmmmm Mismanagement or Gross Incompetence ?

It beggars belief that the 2019 increase in fuel excise levy originally scheduled to take effect on 1 October had its implementation date brought forward 3 months to 1 July 2019 and this amendment to law was passed under urgency. WTF ? Its urgent that we pass this in to law sooner so we can exacerbate the problem of unspent fuel excise levies...go figure ?